Another Stupid Love Story
by xXRisslovesyouXx
Summary: Robin likes Artemis. Unfortunately, she and Wally seem to be attracted to each other, leaving him alone. Or so he thought. Rated T for mild swearing.


**Set pre-invasion about one year from season one, and (for the story's sake) before Artemis and Wally became a couple. Also, Barbra has become Batgirl. I don't own anyone or anything.**

**Another Stupid Love Story**

It had been a particularly busy day for Robin; school, a mission for the team, lots of homework. The usual. Unlike the rest of his day, though, patrolling Gotham with Batman seemed to be pretty boring. The city was unusually calm, save for petty things like a gas station robbery. Nothing the police couldn't handle by themselves. Yep, there seemed to be a shortage of green haired clowns, two faced gangsters, and cat burglars, which made patrol _extremely boring._

Robin decided that he would go and "patrol" the apartment in which Artemis had resided. Patrol—a word which, as used here, means something along the lines of "ditching his duties in order to entertain himself." He might as well share his boredom with a… friend… right?

There it was—her window. He'd been there enough times as Dick Grayson to work on homework with her to recognize it. He thought back to those times. The first time had been a few months ago.  
_

_Artemis grimaced as she looked down at the Calculus test that her teacher had handed her. When she finally managed to open her eyes, her vision was assaulted with the sight of red slash marks galore. 'Ugh,' she thought. 'Why is this so hard? God, mom's going to kill me.' _

_The bell rang. She thought that she'd be able to avoid her teacher._

"_Artemis, may I speak with you?" 'Well, damn, there goes that idea,' she thought.  
"Yes?" she said as she turned around.  
"Artemis, I want to talk to you. It's about your current grade. To say the least, it isn't very good."  
Artemis sighed and looked at her feet. Her teacher continued talking.  
"I'm afraid the only thing there is left for me to suggest to you is tutoring."  
"What? No! I-I won't do it! Tutoring is… it's for stupid people who can't help themselves. I can handle myself just fine!" she almost yelled.  
"Artemis, we all need help sometimes. Tutoring doesn't mean that you're stupid at all. It just means that you pick this subject up slowly, that's all," he tried to reason. Artemis scoffed.  
"I know that's 'teacher speak' for 'Artemis, you're dumb.'"  
Their conversation ended with the teacher handing her a slip of paper about free tutoring in the library._

_Artemis walked up to the school's library and rolled her eyes. 'Just get it over with, Artemis,' she thought to herself. When she walked in, she saw none other than Dick Grayson, mathlete extraordinaire, waiting for her. Seriously? Being tutored by a freshman? Way to go, Crock. _

_He smiled at her. _

"_Hey, Artemis!"  
"Hey," she mumbled.  
"…not feeling the aster…"Artemis thought she heard him say.  
"What?"  
"Nothing. Should we get started?" He changed the subject. She gave him a weird look.  
"Actually, I came here to tell you that I have to go home. My mom needs me. Unless you'd like to do this at my house, this can't happen." He smiled again.  
"Fine by me. If you'll just lead the way, I'll call Bruce and tell him that I'll be with you." Artemis rolled her eyes. _

_She just couldn't get out of this whole, tutoring thing, could she?  
__

Well, she _had_ gotten better at Calculus. And the various other subjects they had studied together.

Okay, so sometimes he just went to her for the hell of it. Could he help it if the company he liked to keep was, to say the very least… beautiful?

This last thought made him blush slightly to himself.

He knocked on her window. When she came to it, she smiled and opened it.

"Hey, Arty," Robin smiled.  
"Hey Rob. What are you doing here? Boring night of patrol?"  
"You know me so well." They both laughed.  
"You gonna come in or do you want to freeze to death?" He did as he was asked.

They always did this; he would come to her apartment room in the middle of the night and she'd let him in. They'd talk about anything and everything; Batman, both of the Arrows, the hero business, school, etc. At least, they did until Batman's voice came through Robin's comm. link, scolding him for skipping out on patrol for the umpteenth time that month, after which, he'd wish her a good night and head off.  
_

Robin had a problem. A serious problem.

Okay, maybe Bruce would laugh at him for calling this problem serious, but he was still only fourteen. He was allowed to think of this problem as serious.

Robin seemed to think that he may… possibly… have a tiny… itty bitty… little… crush on Artemis. Maybe. He tried to be smooth when (possibly) flirting with her, and he felt like she was reciprocating his (possible) affection. But he certainly wouldn't admit that to anyone. Especially not to Artemis. Batman had always said that dating within the team would only end badly. Besides, he had started to realize that what he thought of as 'flirting,' she may have just thought of as 'being sisterly.' Staying up late, talking, being nice... he _was_ about two years younger than her, anyways.

That's not even the bad part.

The bad part is about what happened earlier today at the cave.  
_

"_Recognized: Robin- B01," the female voice announced._

"_Hey Rob! I wanna talk to you!" Wally's voice got louder as he zoomed into the room, only to end up right in front of Robin.  
"What's wrong?" Wally looked around.  
"Mind if we talk in my room?" he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Robin gave him a look.  
"Okay…" he said, eyeing the speedster suspiciously_

_When they reached Wally's room, he shut the door._

"_What is all of this about, anyways?" Wally walked over to his bed, sighed, and sat down.  
"You can't tell _anyone,_ promise?"  
"I—I guess. That depends, does it involve your well-being?" Wally forced a laugh.  
"No." He paused. "I've just been… thinking. About a certain… archer." _

_What? Aw man…_

"_I guess that I've just been thinking that I may…"  
'No, don't say it,' Robin thought. 'Please, for the love of God, don't make this any more complicated than it already is. Please don't say what I think you're going to say!'  
"_…_like_…_ Artemis."_

_Shit._

_God dammit._

_Son of a bitch._

"_Lame," he forced a laugh. "And here I thought I was gonna hear something that was actually interesting."  
"Duuude! Not funny!"  
__

Robin groaned and fell backwards onto his bed, sinking into his sheets. There were so many thoughts running through his head, he couldn't really keep them straight. The way he saw it, this could end one of several ways:

_I tell Wally that I like Artemis, too._  
Problem with this one was that, if he told Wally how he felt, it'd be awkward. What if Artemis chose Wally? Their friendship could take some major blows. Would Wally say no to her to save his relationship with Robin? How could Robin deal with that kind of guilt? What if she happened to choose Robin? Would Wally be mad if he said yes? _Would_ he say yes?

_I tell Artemis that I like her.  
_What if that influences her decision and she chooses him instead of Wally? Now that Wally knew that Robin knew how he felt, how could he say yes to Artemis? What if Artemis got hurt, too?

_3.) I keep my big yap shut.  
_This was looking like his best option right now. He may get hurt, but at least his friends won't have to share his awkwardness.

Why is this so hard?

"_This is so not asterous,"_ he thought to himself.

He could fight freaky clowns and disgusting, sewer loving clay monsters. Put him in a room filled with henchmen and guns and tie him to a chair and he'll figure a way out almost immediately. Put him in charge of a mission and ask him for battle plans? Easy. Tell him to show you his most daring stunts without so much as batting an eye? Consider it done. But girls? Girls were complicated. Girls were a puzzle that he wasn't sure he could handle. And adding Wally into the mix… He shuddered.  
_

Almost four days later, when Robin returned to the cave, he was greeted yet again by a rush of colors, a gust of wind, and a nearly glowing teenaged speedster.

"Guess _what_!" Wally practically knocked him over.  
"Ugh. What news could possibly be so great that you had to practically bowl over me to get my attention?" Robin snorted, laughing at his friend's excitement. Wally lowered his voice (which, for the record, is uncommon for speedsters).  
"I asked Artemis out!" His face beamed radiantly. Robin's heart sank just a tad. He managed to keep a straight face. (Batman's protégé, duh.)  
"Annnd… she said… yes?"  
"No. I ran you over to tell you that she said no. Of course, she said yes! Yeesh, and I thought you were supposed to be a detective," Wally teased his best friend.  
"Ha, yeah, silly me," Robins voice trailed off. As soon as it did, Artemis sauntered into the room, smiling shyly.  
"I believe I was promised a free dinner, compliments of a certain speedster?" She and Wally laughed.  
"Sure thing, beautiful. Later, Rob!"

Wally winked, and then proceeded to grab her hand in his own. He leaned in and whispered something to her, which Robin couldn't focus on, and she smiled. The two walked up to the Zeta transporter, which announced that they had both been recognized, and then they were gone.

Just like that, Robin was left alone, feeling like he had just been slapped. It was almost an embarrassing feeling. How could he be so stupid? He hung his head slightly and decided that he'd rather go back to Gotham to patrol with Batman and Babs.  
_

He sat on top of the Wayne Enterprises, so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn't even hear someone come to sit next to him.

"Hey. You okay? You seem a bit… off… today." It was Babs.  
"Fine," he muttered, still lost in his own little world.  
"Girl troubles?" she questioned. He quirked an eyebrow up at her.  
"How'd you know?" he inquired. She shrugged.  
"Woman's intuition?" she guessed. Robin huffed.  
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"..."  
"You… wanna… tell me, maybe?" she pressed. He sighed.  
"To make a long story short? Wally is (as of several hours ago) dating the girl that I …like…d"

Babs was silent for a few moments. Then, she said, "Liked? You don't like her anymore?"

It was Robin's turn to be silent for a moment.

"It's just easier if I don't let anyone inside my head…"  
"…But… you're letting me in. Does that mean I'm special?" She smiled at him.  
"I guess so." He smiled back at her.

They sat there, looking down at the busy cityscape and simply… being. That's all. They knew Batman would hand them their asses on a silver platter later that night for not doing their 'job', but right now, it didn't really seem to matter. All that mattered was the fact that Robin had finally realized that he never really liked Artemis. She was a beautiful person, sure, but she and Wally belonged together; he could see that now. When that night ended with Robin taking Babs out for tea, and then walking her back to her house, neither of them could say that it didn't feel…_right_. And Robin certainly couldn't complain when, just before she was about to close her door, she leaned in to him, only to plant one kiss lightly on his cheek, lingering for a mere second to say, "Night, Dick."

He gave her a small smile.

"_Night, Barb."_  
_

**So, how'd you like it? The idea popped into my head because of something that I'm kinda going through right now. Kinda sappy, I know. Whatever :)  
I suppose this can be seen as sort of a prequel to the Dick/Babs relationship that develops in my other story, **_**Something Different.**_** You should probably check it out. :3 Not necessary to the plot, really, just more Dick/Babs. Sooo, yeah. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks! :)**


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